comScore: Mobile "Search" gaining.
Posted by Jay Donovan on 09/27/08 in Business, Mobile Marketing, Opinion
From Mobile Marketing Magazine
comScore, which specializes in measuring the digital world, has revealed mobile search is gaining in both popularity and frequency of use in the US and Western Europe.
comScore M:Metrics reports that in June 2008, 20.8 million US mobile subscribers and 4.5 million European mobile phone subscribers accessed search during the month, an increase of 68 and 38% from June 2007, respectively. The UK had the highest penetration of mobile subscribers using search at 9.5%, followed closely by the US at 9.2%.
“It is interesting to note that as we see the number of mobile search users increase, the frequency of activity is also growing,” says comScore Analyst, Alistair Hill. “The number of people accessing mobile search at least once a week grew 50% in Europe, with France and Spain leading at a rate of 69 and 63%, respectively. Meanwhile, the number of US users accessing mobile search has more than doubled as a result of expanded 3G penetration and Smartphone adoption, as well as the proliferation of flat-rate data plans. We have also seen a substantial improvement to the mobile search offerings in the US market.”
Google is the preferred brand for browser-based searches with a 60% share of mobile searchers in all countries measured by comScore M:Metrics. Yahoo! ranks second in Germany, Italy, UK and the US. In the US Yahoo’s mobile searcher penetration is 34.6%, more than double its share in most other countries
What these statistics also reveal is that the comfort level with viewing a mobile device as “more than a way to make phone calls” really is gaining traction. With regard to brand marketing, (hey, it’s my day job yo) these new mobile search stats are significant for two reasons:
1. It proves that more consumers are doing search tasks out in the field that were once constrained to their desktop machines, and from a brand viewpoint that could just as likely be product comparisons as it could be looking up word definitions or directions. We know that a major portion of research preceding a brand purchase happens online. Brands that can optimize and reach their savvy users with mobile content on searched demand will have an advantage , especially as the “Power-Users” of today gradually become the average users of tomorrow.
2. With location-based services and software popping up on more and more phones, “Search” is about to get even more granular, more localized, more precise, more useful. These increased numbers justify more development of these kinds of tools and services. Brands that realize this and adapt to this kind of scheme will also have advantages.
Three Important Trends in Mobile Marketing
Posted by Jay Donovan on 08/27/08 in General, Mobile Marketing
1. Mobile Integrated Events
Mobile marketing and events are a perfect match – a crowd of people contained in one location with a common purpose or interest. It is an important trend that more and more events are being integrated with mobile because everyone in the audience then becomes one more person who has been exposed to mobile marketing and will then be more likely to participate in the future. It helps it become normal.Although I am not a big fan of watching the national political conventions (I think they’ve strayed too far from democracy and turned into being all about publicity, but that’s another story) it is impossible to not hear about what’s going on there.
The 3AM VP candidate announcement via text message aside, what I found very interesting at the Democratic National Convention was the interactive text screen. Delegates could use their cell phones to send text message comments that would show up on a big screen for everyone to see. I particularly enjoyed Dianne Sawyer on Good Morning America talking about how this would happen. She sounded like she was telling us that we had landed on the moon. By the next convention cycle in four years this technology will be so ingrained in our culture it won’t even be worth a mention.
Other celebrities are also tying into mobile marketing at their events – Def Leppard, the US Olympic water polo team, NBC covering the Olympics and even the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
2. Major Companies Jumping into Mobile Marketing
There is nothing like major brands jumping into something to prove it is settling into everyday life. From the early days of brands marketing on black and white televisions when there were only three channels to now when they are marketing with mobile. Every time another household name level brand uses mobile marketing the closer we are to having mobile marketing be a household word.
